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As for "when am I ready?" You'll never be ready. It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it. - pmbomb
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Behringer XR18 - will allow plenty of future expansion and recording options. Easy to edit remotely.
Powered PA speakers - Yamaha DXR series, Mackie do some, etc - dont worry about sub unless you put Bass or kick drums through the PA.
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It might be counter-intuitive, but running something through the PA (eg guitar, drums) is NOT always about adding more volume. It can help to make for a more even spread of sound, or for a less ridiculously loud stage.
TL:DR version = don't be afraid to mic up more than just the singers.
As for "when am I ready?" You'll never be ready. It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it. - pmbomb
You said small pub gigs to begin with so I would start with a vocal PA then see what you think your going to need, and certainly go second hand to begin with. In my opinion the only way to begin learning how a PA works and goes together is to start with an analogue desk because the signal flow is obvious ,source - mic - desk -amplifier -speakers effects send to effects return then effects to mains, monitor sends to monitors are all on physical knobs which are either turned up or not, on a digital mixer very easy miss something and if your not experienced .
You can get a smaller analog mixer and the powered 12" PA speakers and a couple of monitors. It's pretty easy to work out stuff and make adjustments with an analog mixer, as all the knobs are there. This one also has compression on the xlr channels, which helps on vocals and acoustic instruments.
Digital desks are incredibly versatile but not really easy to use to begin with, especially surfaceless types which rely purely on ipad control. If you do go down that route though then the Soundcraft Ui series is better built than the Behringer and a bit cheaper. Plus you can control it with any browser on any device, no matter how old.
Active speakers are seen to be better than passive speakers these days but they really aren't. A decent pair of used Peavey / HK / Yamaha etc speakers paired with a good old class AB power amp will last longer than a modern set of active class D speakers and in a lot of cases be lighter to lift onto a stand.
Active speakers do have an advantage at very big gigs with very long speaker runs as the speaker cable adds in series resistance but in a pub / club situation a passive speaker is actually easier to use as it requires no mains.
The good news is that if you put the bass through the PA as well then it should be fine as a monitor for the bass on stage, but in that case you will need a sub(s).
In fact, you always need subs really - unless it's truly just for vocals and acoustic instruments. Subs allow you to reduce the size, power and cost of the top cabinets, *at the same time* as producing a better sound at higher volume if necessary and filling the space better, because they remove the need to put very low frequencies through the top boxes, which reduces the stress on the whole system.
If you get two then you don't need stands for the top cabs either - just poles - subs are more stable and take up less space, and even though you don't need two in a small room (so you could have one and one stand) it's good to have a backup as well.
You can actually mix the technology perfectly well too - my set-up is a pair of passive 1x10" top cabs driven from an old-fashioned analogue 150W per channel mixer amp, plus a single 250W 1x15" powered sub. It's not sophisticated but perfectly adequate for pubs where I'm going to be mixing from the stage. (If there actually is one .)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
So at the moment I'm veering towards the simple route of vocal-only PA - I think that will probably do for our immediate needs - but looking towards future-proofing also: if we were to put instruments and drums through the PA as well, that would need a minimum of nine mic inputs, yes? 2 vox, 2 guitar, bass, kick, snare, 2 overheads. I've noticed that quite a few mixers have, say, 8 XLR inputs, but then some of the channels can take stereo jacks as well. Would it be possible to use one of the stereo channels for the overheads?
As for "when am I ready?" You'll never be ready. It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it. - pmbomb
To be honest, on a small, loud stage you'll be fighting for less cymbals, not more. Every live vocal mic on stage is an extra overhead and will be full of cymbals and snare, especially if your drummer is particularly hard hitting. I'd start with a kick mic (scoop the low mids out of it - the beater attack in the high end helps give definition to each hit and will make it feel more present, don't try and push the low end too hard if you're not running subs) and see how you get on. I've done many function band gigs with just a kick and a single overhead, and barely used the overhead at all, and I've done touring gigs with 14+ channels of drum mics where I've used the whole lot, but in your situation, keeping it simple is the best approach!
Some sockets on some desks are stereo, so tip is wired hard left and ring hard right. Other identical looking sockets will be TRS though, which is hot, cold and ground same as an XRL socket. These are generally fine for signals that don't need a huge amount of mic gain, keys. sample pads, strong mic signals like drum etc
There's a lot of desks with 12 mic pre amps and 2 stereo line ins, there will generally be called something 16 as technically they can process 16 channels of audio
Our drummer is one of those rare beasts who could do with hitting a bit harder.
As for "when am I ready?" You'll never be ready. It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it. - pmbomb
Ps I always mic bass drum and hi hat befor anything else as to me this is where the groove lies
Slightly off topic, but I've asked about this setup and feedback issues before on here and I just thought I'd share that turning off the compressor/expander on the desk fixed 90% of the problems. I man the iPad in between strumming duties and things are a lot more controllable now.